Sports minister, Solomon Dalung, on Thursday said Nigeria’s football crisis would have been averted if Nigeria Football Federation president, Amaju Pinnick, and Chris Giwa had listened to him.
Dalung, who spoke in Lagos, said it was unfortunate that the game Nigerians loved was at the receiving end as a result of the leadership crisis.
He explained that he had played a major role in trying to resolve the matter but that both sides had remained adamant and uncooperative to peace moves.
The minister said he was surprised that club owner Chris Giwa went back to court to unearth a case deemed to be dead after peaceful resolution just as he was also disappointed that NFF president, Amaju Pinnick, failed to embark on some reconciliatory moves that could have ended the problem.
He said, “When I met Pinnick and Giwa, we resolved to allow reconciliation but that was not done and we also agreed to stop further fighting but now Giwa is back in court.
“The Giwa people are claiming that their election cannot be tagged to be illegitimate because Aminu Maigari was arrested since Shehu Dikko was also arrested shortly before the Pinnick election. I am not happy because the situation we have could have been averted if the two main people listened to me.
“Again, it is difficult to ignore the court of the land while it is also tough not to follow the dictates of the international body. As a lawyer I am not happy that we seem to be giving too much attention to FIFA at the expense of our own court.”